Friends of CLMRG will want to know about long time members
Bob Rockwell and Werner Hueber. Both had developed
coronary artery blockages (Bob had apparently suffered a silent
heart attack). Both had noticed that something was wrong only
because of diminished performance in the mountains and a little
chest discomfort. Both had successful bypass procedures in March.
Both are in rehabilitation programs and are progressing nicely.
Also, long time Special Skills member Phelps TerHeun had
a successful triple bypass in May and is recovering nicely.Barry Niesen tripped and broke a small bone in his foot
at Fossil Falls. Thinking it was just a sprained ankle, he continued
climbing for a while. Continued discomfort caused him to get
an X-ray, which revealed the break.

David Miles and Mike Franklin are now Trainees with
CLMRG. Welcome.Bill and Jeanette Rudy have been reassigned and are leaving
us. Farewell.

OUTINGS

The East Ridge of Mount Carl Heller
By Daryl Hinman
The striking east ridge of Mount Carl Heller is unusually symmetrical
in form. From the base, the crest of this long knife-edge ridge
rises at an almost constant angle until it joins the main mass
of the mountain. The steep sides of the ridge fall off at continuous
and almost identical angles. The excellent picture of Mount Carl
Heller in Moynier and Fiddler's Sierra Classics ­ 100 Best
Climbs in the Sierra illustrates these features well.
The East Ridge route follows the crest of the ridge to its end
and then ascends a steep chute to the north ridge, which leads
to the summit. The route is rated Class 3, and given the challenging
climbing on the exposed ridge, it is one of the best routes in
the Sierra at that level and certainly well deserving of its inclusion
in Sierra Classics. However, because of its remoteness,
it sees very few ascents. The route finding on the ridge is fairly
straightforward but critical to maintain the climbing at the class
3 level. Generally, the route does not deviate far from the actual
crest. The easiest descent is the West Face route, which is shown
in Secor's second edition of High Sierra - Peaks, Passes, and
Trails.
On the weekend of May 2, 1987, six members of the China Lake Mountain
Rescue Group (CLMRG)--Bob Rockwell, Bart Hine, Dianne Lucas, Bob
Huey, Chris Ostermann, and I--climbed the East Ridge route. After
spending the night at Whitney Portal, we went up the North Fork
of Lone Pine Creek to Cleaver Col. Following a side trip to climb
Mount Carillon, we descended the Col and traversed around the
east side of Tulainyo Lake. At these higher elevations, large
areas were still covered with snow. We climbed Tunnabora Peak
and descended its complex north slopes to our camp near the base
of Mount Carl Heller's east ridge.
We began our ascent early in the morning, and the climbing on
the lower part of the ridge went well. It was always exciting,
and at times, we were moving up on the very crest of the ridge.
Because we were wearing mountaineering boots and carrying our
ice axes and overnight packs (including sleeping bags, pads, bivouac
sacks, and stoves), careful route finding was a definite requirement.
As an added measure, we carried two 80-foot 9-mm ropes, about
10 pieces of protection, and some slings and carabiners because
of our fairly large and varied party.
We climbed the entire ridge unroped except for a 120-foot section
about two-thirds up the ridge. Here we were forced to climb a
narrow ramp on the shaded north side of the crest. The ramp was
covered with about 18 inches of snow. I spent most of two hours
leading this section, which required chopping away the snow and
ice to obtain holds and pro placements in the rock. With Rockwell
belaying me, I did this in two leads and used every piece of pro
on our scanty rack for each pitch. The others in the party climbed
using prusiks to self-belay on the fixed ropes we left, except
for the last person who was belayed as a follower. The conditions
in this single section cost our party more than three hours.

The climbing on the remainder of the east ridge went well,
and after ascending the snow chute and north ridge, we reached
the summit eight hours after starting the climb. We descended
the West Face route and then headed south towards Tulainyo Lake.
Our intention had been to reach the roadhead that day, but given
the slow, knee-deep post-holing across the extensive snowfields,
it became clear that this was out of the question.
Thoroughly exhausted when we reached Tulainyo Lake, we shared
our modest food supply and bedded down for the night. Leaving
at first light, Rockwell and Huey made a dash for Whitney Portal
to contact our rescue-mates at home before our pre-arranged deadline
to be out. Although late, they were able to stop the rescue alert
that was in progress before a mobilization had begun (see CLMRG
operation 87-8 in Talus Pile #71 dated June 1987).
My recommendation for doing this route is to use the same approach
but camp at Tulainyo Lake rather than at the base of the east
ridge. This avoids hauling a heavy pack up the route and allows
the option of camping a second night at Tulainyo Lake on the way
out. To avoid any snow on the route and approach and eliminate
the need for an axe, do the climb later in the season. From Highway
395, Mount Carl Heller can be viewed only from Manzanar north
of Lone Pine. From there, snow on the ramp can easily be seen
as a prominent finger of white on the ridge. I have looked at
it many times since our climb, and it is the last significantly
visible snow on the ridge's crest to melt. The required technical
gear is of course a function of the party, but most should at
least have a short, light rope and some slings and carabiners.
Recently, Mount Carl Heller's East Ridge has gained a reputation
for being significantly underrated. It is very exposed and challenging
Class 3, but if there are any 5th Class sections at all, they
are only a few short moves no harder than 5.2. I don't think
our party would have accomplished the climb in the manner we did
if this were not the case. In addition, the rating is consistent
with Secor's accurate discussion concerning the realities of climbing
ratings for mountaineering on page 31 of his book.
All in all, ours was a classic mountaineering experience. I consider
it one of my best climbs, and I am sure the other participants
have similar feelings. Mount Carl Heller is named for the founder
of the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group. He had many hundreds
of ascents in every area of the Sierra Nevada and many climbing
regions of the world. He was also on the second ascent of the
East Ridge. It is fitting that such a superb climb is on a mountain
that honors such a superb mountaineer.

Editor: Bob Rockwell provided the picture of Mount Carl
Heller

A walk in the snowBy Walter Runkle
I was on Mt. Whitney this weekend [April 27-28]. I went up the
Mountaineer's Route on Friday, spent the night on the summit,
and came down the trail on Saturday. Snow conditions were good
to excellent. I did not take snowshoes and never needed them.
I was glad I took an ice axe and crampons, though, especially
for the trail from just south of Third Needle all the way to Mt.
Muir.
I was able to park at Whitney Portal and take the old trail short
cut up to the main Whitney trail. The road was open to the Portal,
but snow still blocked the drive around the fishing pond. I wore
plastic boots and usually was on snow the whole time from the
Portal to the summit and back.
The gully up the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek was still filled
with snow but not so much as some years. I took the trail on
the south side of the creek and then stayed on the snow instead
of using the Ebersbacher Ledges. Clyde's Meadow was covered by
snow, and the outlet from Upper Boy Scout Lake was still covered
and frozen. I was able to get water at the waterfall below Iceberg
Lake, which was good because Iceberg Lake was also frozen over
and looked pretty solid.
I went up the chute between 2:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon. I
was able to follow a couple of skiers who kicked good steps for
me. There were a couple of hard spots (frozen) higher up, but
usually the snow was pretty soft all the way up to the notch.
As I was climbing the chute, I noticed two climbers on the East
Buttress route. The Washboard and the Grand Staircase on the
East Face still had plenty of snow on them.
The third class route from the notch to the summit was pretty
much filled with hard snow. I couldn't take the usual climbing
route on the rock because of all the snow, so I followed the skiers'
boot prints directly to the top. Here, as I got near the top
and the angle of the snow increased, it got very hard to kick
good steps. I met the skiers coming down. They were facing in
and backing down since they didn't have any crampons on. They
did have ice axes, as did I. They had left their skies at the
notch and planned to ski down to their camp at Upper Boy Scout
Lake and hike out that night.
On the summit, I met the couple who had been climbing the East
Buttress. He was from Colorado, and she was from Arizona(?).
They had met in Washington and were training for a climb in Peru.
The night on the summit was comfortable enough with my Blue Kazoo
and bivvy bag. The next morning, the water in my cooking pot
was only partially frozen, so it got only slightly below freezing
during the night. But it was really windy, so I moved my cooking
set-up inside the hut to make breakfast a little more pleasant.
The hut was about 1/3 filled with drifting snow. It brought
back memories of last year's operation.
The traverse over to Trail Crest was a big surprise. From just
south of Third Needle all the way to Mt. Muir, the trail was covered
by drifting snow. I was really glad to have crampons and an ice
axe for this part. I saw no other footprints in the frozen, virgin
snow. At one point, I used my ice axe wedged in a crack in the
rock as a belay to climb over a steep vertical drift. I had tried
to kick steps to get over it, but the snow kept giving away.
It reminded me of trying to cross a bergschrund. I finally saw
some other footprints just north of Muir. Whoever they were,
they didn't have crampons and had been staying high off the trail,
climbing on the ridge for the most part. It looked like they
turned around just north of Muir. The traverse took me a good
two hours.
The glissade from Trail Crest is in good shape. The snow still
had a little bit of a crust on it, but otherwise was pretty soft.
The glissade down to Mirror Lake was perfect! No previous glissade
runs. I got to be the first!
I took the usual three shortcuts from Big Horn Park, the "bush
in the rock" shortcut, and the last good one down to the
Portal. I got down about 12:30 in the afternoon after leaving
the summit about 7:30. The weather was gorgeous both days.

The Sierra Nevada is your play ground. Why aren't you out
playing?

MEMBERS ON THE RUN

Editor: The Over the Hill Track Club (OTHTC)-a popular
local social club-offers and participates in some unusual foot
races each year. These activities seem to appeal to several members
of CLMRG. This is a summary of the racing accomplishments of
our members so far this year as reported in OTHTC's newsletter
THE ROADRUNNER.

Disney World MarathonJanuary 7, 2001
By Elaine Riendeau
In 1995, I participated in the one and only Disneyland marathon.
This year, I decided to relive that experience by running in
the Eighth Annual Walt Disney World Marathon in Florida. Florida
had a cold spell in early January, and marathon day proved to
be another cold morning. With temperatures below freezing at
the start of the marathon, runners huddled to stay warm. We were
herded like cattle to the start line. Following brief announcements
and a short fireworks display, Mickey Mouse started the race.
The first four miles of the marathon had two routes to allow the
runners to thin before we merged back together. Crowds were huge
as we began by running into Epcot. The parks weren't open at
the start, so cast members were there cheering us on.
The race went through all four parks--from Epcot to the Magic
Kingdom to the Animal Kingdom to MGM and back to Epcot. Running
through Magic Kingdom was a rush, especially going through Cinderella's
castle. So many people were cheering us on that we couldn't help
get caught up in the excitement and run faster.
Additional highlights of the marathon included slapping the hands
of Mickey, Minnie, Tip, Dale, and Buzz Lightyear.
Across the finish line were golden Mickey Mouse Ears. People
who ran the half-marathon were treated to Donald Duck medals.
The day after the race, marathon certificates were handed out.
My official place was 2701 out of 8012. My gender place was
815 out of 3973. My age division place was 172 out of 740. My
net time was 4:26:42.

Editor: Long-time member Al Green forwards a note from
Mike Walters, who was a member from September 1974 to April 1981.For those of you who remember Mike Walters. And, those
of you who fantasize about doing "Walters Crack." Al
----------
Hi, Al. Mike Walters here. I was just paging through climbing
news on the net and found the CLMRG. Boy, was I surprised to
see you, Rockwell, and Hinman in the Talus Pile. I'm living and
working at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Been doing a lot
of backpacking here and have climbed a few more of the Temples
in the canyon since Bill and I climbed Zoraster years ago. I
[intend] to do Buddha Temple, but it may have to wait till next
spring. I would like to thank you for the backcountry/climbing
knowledge you taught me. By the way, I guess Marty Landau moved
from DC to CO. Do you know his address? Al, say hi to all.
Feel free to come enjoy my mountains! I know some outrageous
spots both here in the canyon and in southern Utah. Happy Climbing.
Mike

DONATIONSGina Najera-Niesen

CLMRG gratefully acknowledges recent gifts from the following
friends: